36. Exorcism and the Devil? 5
To cut straight to the conclusion, their exorcism had failed.
They'd locked the door on the claim that no one should be inside the hospital room, and all we heard from within were strange noises. When the door finally opened, their faces were utterly wrecked. Deeply disheartened by how divine relics and scripture had no effect whatsoever, they emerged from the room looking years older after just one night.
We couldn't bring ourselves to ask what happened, so we sat nearby and gestured that we'd go in and check ourselves. They'd vaguely heard about me by then and nodded meekly after fussing with their relics for a while.
"Didn't go well, huh."
"Don't jinx it. Let's go in quietly."
"Yeah."
We slipped into the hospital room without agitating them. The place was a mess of ritual remnants, littered with all sorts of objects. White grains—salt, probably—circled the bed, surrounded by bottles of holy water scattered everywhere. And in the corner of the bed, a tiny piglet bound up tight. Cute little thing, blissfully asleep, unaware it was part of a midnight rite.
"Gonna be a pain to clean this up later. Never seen a room dirtier than mine. Haha."
I filmed the surroundings with the camera, tossing in a half-joking comment. It was more for the viewers watching the footage than for her.
As I crossed the boundary of piled white powder amid rustling sounds from behind, the woman—who'd been lying there as if asleep—snapped her eyes open. Her wooden shackles rattled as her bound hands twitched, drawing my gaze.
"...Who are you?"
"Someone who's gonna get you out of this room. But weren't you drugged? How're you awake?"
"You can't subdue me with mere drugs!"
A guttural rasp burst out, thick and scraped raw without any effort on her part. It was more like the forced wheeze of a tenor straining to hit bass notes. Hyeon-a, fiddling with the camera, flinched and angled it slightly toward her.
"Oh yeah? That's a shame. Means you'll have to tough out a cold without meds."
"From a human perspective... perhaps."
She cracked her eyes wider, letting out a snickering cackle that reeked of sleaze. How could anyone's pupils look that pitch-black? Definitely not normal.
"Not bad at all... Thanks to those fools just now, I slipped out without much hassle. Human tongue—been ages. Heh heh heh heh."
"Hmph."
"Here to send the demon back? Heh, as if."
"Tch, doesn't recognize me. Too long since last time?"
She muttered something about lowly gods of this world trying to take her on, then devolved into unintelligible gibberish—probably recounting her escape from whatever hellhole she'd clawed out of. I couldn't care less how she'd crawled free from hell, so after ages, I cracked open a spatial rift and pulled out an item.
No need to watch Hyeon-a's reaction; time had frozen the moment those eyes opened.
"...How can you move and speak? Is this world's god stronger than expected?"
"Nah, 'cause I'm like you."
"Like me? Impossible. This is a whole different world."
She stayed lying down, but if you visualized her soul detaching, it'd look just like this. Reality's far crueler than any horror flick. Drenched in blood-red fluid, the heteromorphic entity rose, bones—the core of any human form—bursting forth first to rebuild itself. To blend with humans, it had to mimic them closely.
I slipped on leather gloves summoned from thin air. Sized for an adult man's hands, they fit my much smaller ones perfectly, hugging tight.
"Keh heh heh... This body's been a while too."
"Out so long you've forgotten my face? Big letdown, Maamun."
At the call of its name, the demon half-emerged from her body froze. It stared, demanding how I knew it.
"Still don't recognize me? Disappointing."
"How could a mere human know my—"
Its all-black eyes rolled wildly, then its expression flickered with realization. I didn't know how much time had passed between then and now, but judging by its face, it must've been ancient history. Dug deep from memory, by the look.
"Vanished from there, huh? And here you were."
"Work piled up too high, so they sent me here for a break. Been having fun ever since."
"Fuck... You can't block me alone, not in a human body. Father's gaze doesn't reach here."
"Knew that, so I called backup."
"Mere backup won't—!"
Before it finished, something passed through the door into the frozen space where even outside noise didn't penetrate: a three-headed hound come to drag back an escaped hell-dweller. The demon's face hardened at the sight of its nightmare beast. After so long, its expressions had gotten way more varied—amusing. Blame the human body it'd hitched to.
"How'd you even bring that bastard?"
"Even on a joyride, my powers stick. Picked one unrelated to you, just the one, out of consideration."
Countless gates lead to hell, each guarded by watchdogs. If one slips its post, the big shots upstairs rage, so they'd be furious at an escapee. My way of being nice.
Woof!
"What the—! Grahk!"
Ignoring our chat, the three heads clamped onto the still-emerging demon—skull, torso, legs—chewing viciously. Normally it'd feel nothing, no emotions, but the creator's hounds had teeth that hurt. Bones of some indefinable material crunched audibly; even watching pained me. The half-named hellhound happily stuffed itself, job well done.
No need for gloves and inventory now. Anticlimactic.
Whine...!
"Got it. I'll open the gate."
Unable to open it itself, it rubbed its dripping heads against me. To keep my clothes clean, I gestured with a gloved hand, reopening the gate it'd come through.
"Bye. Explain yourself well back home."
Woof!
It wagged its fluffy-tailed rump and vanished as the gate snapped shut. Then Baekho padded in from outside, gleefully crunching the demon remnants like treats, promising to handle cleanup.
"Haa..."
At that moment, the girl on the bed sighed contentedly, her face relaxing fully—and time resumed flowing. The stench faded too.
"...Boss, what'd you do?"
She'd seen me approach, then the sudden relieved exhale and eased expression, so question marks popped up in her eyes.
Explaining a demon crawled out during the time stop only to get hellhound-ed back home? I'd just be the butt of the joke. I shrugged.
"Who knows. Looks like those folks succeeded."
"Then we've got nothing to film. Video's gonna be boring now."
"Wrap it with proof our Lord's power still lives. Religious nuts'll eat it up."
"Anyone who buys that is a cultist."
Muttering about the video's lack of substance, I boxed up the undamaged arm. Blocked any more weird rituals—good result for me. No reason to linger, so as we prepped to leave, a knock came from outside.
"Yes."
"May we come in?"
"Of course."
The door opened, and two priests—tense after debating next steps outside—entered. Spotting me packing relics, one almost snapped, but their eyes shifted to the woman on the bed, faces blooming with shock. As dramatic as the demon's had been.
"Seemed tidied up, so I was finishing cleanup. Not sure about demons, but she looks peaceful now?"
"Ah... yes."
"Gotta return this stuff by tomorrow. Need it longer?"
"No need. The new year's sun was already rising anyway—failure was set."
"Fair enough."
I locked the wooden box tight. Barely containing their urge to check, they rushed the bed the second I stepped away.
Mission to retrieve relics cleared spotless, no desire to get tangled here. I slipped out before her family arrived.
"Tell the auntie it's done and grab the cash. I'll return this and catch up."
"Got it, boss."
"Grabbing breakfast before heading home?"
"Nah, game night this afternoon—early bed for me."
"Cool, go ahead."
I got in the car, leaving her to taxi back to the office.
The demon I knew couldn't crack a gate solo. Needs an outside accomplice paying some price to barely squeeze out. For it to hitch a ride so easily in a human...
"Those two priests were plenty suspicious."
Thought they'd sent me here to rest. Turns out they just wanted to use another world. Damn gods.